Join us...

We are a group of mature people from a variety of academic backgrounds who meet on a weekly basis to read and discuss the plays and poetry of William Shakespeare.

Meetings are at the Methodist Centre, Old Town, Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 6BG (Tuesdays) and the Friends (Quaker) Meeting House, 39 High Street, Warwick, U.K. (Wednesdays) and last for two hours, from 10.00-12.00 a.m. — with a 10-15 minute break for refreshments: usually coffee and cake from the excellent café onsite.

Courses are led by Dr. Lawrence Green, an Associate Fellow with the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance in the University of Warwick. His doctorate was taken at the Birmingham University's Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. His background and interests may be viewed at his Warwick University profile: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/about_us/people/lawrencegreen/ .

Courses broadly follow the University terms and typically a 10-week course will focus on a single play, exploring in some detail its text and the social and political context within which Shakespeare worked as well as drawing on the experience of the play in the theatre and the enduring relevance of its characters and ideas. Personal opinion is encouraged and a lively exchange of ideas can usually be guaranteed. No written work is required, though some students choose to submit such work purely as an intellectual exercise.

The play-per-term formula is usually supplemented with handouts of relevant printed documents and - if time allows - extracts from film or DVD versions of the plays.